- China submerged nearly 2,000 artificial intelligence servers under the ocean near Shanghai
- Seawater now cools Chinese AI servers without traditional industrial chillers running continuously
- China connected offshore wind farms directly to underwater AI facility
China has begun commercial operations in an underwater data center where sealed server modules operate under the ocean using seawater for passive cooling.
The project combines offshore wind generation with underwater computing infrastructure to reduce electrical pressures linked to the spread of artificial intelligence around the world.
This underwater data center is located approximately 35 meters below the ocean surface near Shanghai’s Lingang Special Area and houses nearly 2,000 servers, including GPUs. China Telecom and LinkWise clusters.
Stable ocean temperatures help cooling
Chinese authorities and private engineering firm HiCloud Technology jointly developed the $226 million facility.
This 24-megawatt facility processes AI workloads, 5G services, and large-scale data annotation operations that require substantial computing capacity.
Unlike conventional land-based facilities that use industrial cooling systems, the subsea structure relies heavily on naturally stable ocean temperatures surrounding pressure-resistant server modules.
Cooling demands have increasingly become a major hurdle for modern data centers because advanced GPU clusters generate enormous heat during continuous computing operations.
According to Chinese media reports, the subsea facility achieved a power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of less than 1.15, lower than the industry average of around 1.5.
A lower PUE indicates that more electricity supports computing tasks directly rather than auxiliary systems such as cooling, ventilation, and infrastructure maintenance equipment.
Industry analysts have increasingly examined alternative cooling methods as the expansion of AI infrastructure continues to put pressure on national power grids and electricity availability.
The Shanghai project also reflects China’s broader effort to integrate renewable energy generation directly into digital infrastructure.
Offshore wind farms connected to the subsea facility reportedly provide a substantial portion of the operational electricity, reducing its dependence on conventional grid-based power supplies.
Previous projects faced obstacles
Officials described the project as the “first” underwater offshore wind data center operating on a commercial scale, although underwater computing experiments already existed elsewhere.
Microsoft previously tested a submerged data center capsules through its Project Natick initiative, carried out near Scotland and California before discontinuing commercial development efforts.
However, those previous experiments suggested that underwater systems could experience lower hardware failure rates because sealed environments limited exposure to oxygen and temperature fluctuations.
However, large-scale subsea deployments continue to face significant engineering concerns related to corrosion, pressure sealing, subsea cable durability, and long-term hardware accessibility during emergencies.
Replacing malfunctioning equipment underwater remains considerably more complicated than conventional installations, where technicians can physically inspect servers and infrastructure in a matter of minutes.
Operators therefore rely heavily on remote monitoring technologies, sealed modular systems and redundant infrastructure aimed at minimizing direct maintenance requirements over the operational lifetime.
Similar concepts continue to emerge globally as governments and technology companies examine unconventional approaches to handling AI infrastructure demands without overwhelming Earth’s resources.
Recent reports detail how Peter Thiel-backed startup Panthalassa is developing floating data centers using wave energy and ocean water cooling systems.
Although subsea installations can substantially reduce cooling energy consumption, long-term operational reliability remains uncertain because large commercial deployments remain relatively uncommon worldwide.
Via Toms Hardware
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